I've been here over three months, built my rep up to 53, my SP to over 200, hit 150 followers. It's all awesome and I'm very grateful to the Steemit community for its support and taking the time to either upvote, resteem, comment on, or read my work.
I've also been upvoted by the @Curie community 7 times as of last night. I put it in my profile not to brag, but because it's incredibly affirming. I even wrote an entry about it. But some people have asked me on Discord or over instant messengers asking how I got that many upvotes, or how I got upvoted in the first place. It's a question I'm by no means an expert on, but I'll give as good an answer as I can based off my own experience.
The First Curie Upvote is ALWAYS a Surprise
Every person who got upvoted by @Curie here on Steemit has a #MyCurieStory, and all of them are good reads, and they tend to have the same thing in common: They were unexpected. You log on to check your feed, or check if your posts, which seem terminally under $1's worth of upvotes, are going to crack that ceiling today. Then you see that you've got 100+, 200+, 400+ upvotes and a post value that makes you rethink leaving the platform. It's validating, affirming, supportive, and sometimes picks you up a follower or ten, of people who are actually going to be reading your work instead of just upvoting it for curation income.
You might try to do the same thing you did before, hoping it'll get you another vote, help you out, maybe you even fantasize about getting a @Curie vote every week. It won't happen, of course, but it's a lovely way to keep yourself motivated, posting, and creating content to share with the community.
"But Vaughn, I haven't gotten an upvote from @Curie. What about Steemians like me?" Glad I imagined you asked.
How I Probably Got Upvoted
I'm a writer. I'm a professor. I'm a gamer. I love picking apart pop culture. You probably have a list of interests of your own. Don't compartmentalize. Wear every hat that you can when doing your work, come at it from every angle, but first, make sure you're doing what you love. Every one of my Curie'ed posts had one thing in common: I was doing what I loved. Whether I was critiquing a game, a genre, a snippet of a movie, writing a chapter of my novel, I made sure my passion was in the writing.
Often in Curie'ed posts you'll see a lot of effort, formatting, links, images, and you might think that HTML might be the path to a vote. It helps, sort of, but that would miss the point. Those links, images, videos, and formatting aren't there to attract curation, they're included because the creator was passionate about the subject, and when you're passionate, you do not half-ass it, and that comes across to the curators who are trolling the New Posts feed again and again and again trying to find that diamond in the rough.
Every Other Curie Vote is a Surprise, Too
I was shocked to get a @Curie vote, and like most who get one at first, I had no idea who @Curie was. After I found out, I, too, tried to recreate that magic that got me a vote. It didn't work, because I wasn't following my passion, I was trying to mechanically copy what was in that entry, and I did it, but looking back, the passion wasn't there. It wasn't until I just let go of it that I was able to write about what mattered to me, what I felt in the moment that I needed to write, as well as wanting to. Every upvote since the first has been a surprise, a wonder, affirming surprise.
There's a reason that photographers and musicians and comedians and people in the #SteemSTEM channels do well in attracting @Curie's attention: They're doing what they love, whether it's making art or seeking to educate others, or further understanding the world we live in. It's not always a dead lock to get an upvote, but you'll at least be at the same dinner party.
That's Right, Dinner Party
I imagine @Curie to be a society dinner party, with the curators as the hosts, and all of us as the attendees. All of the hosts have different interests, but they all have eyes and ears, and can tell when someone deserves their attention. You want that attention? It needs to come across that this is a subject you care about. Upvoting, resteeming, and delegating to @Curie in the hopes you'll get upvotes is, unfortunately, akin to subscribing to 40 magazines so you win the Publisher's Clearing House. Upvote because you support the community. Resteem because you think more people need to know about it so people won't be as shocked and more celebrant when they get their first upvote. Delegate because you have the SP to spare and want a @Curie vote to continue to mean something in this community.
Until then? Follow the community, their curation trail on Steemauto, and enjoy the dinner party. I hear the chicken's quite good. :)